County / In Brief

April 20, 2013

The Lahaina satellite office of the Division of Motor Vehicles and Licensing will remain open until May 3 at its current location at the Lahaina Center off Front Street, even though there is ongoing construction at the site, the county announced.

After May 3, the office will re-locate to the Lahaina Gateway Center at 305 Keawe St. with an opening date to be announced later this month.

The Lahaina Center is converting to an outlet mall with some current tenants having to leave the center.

An average gallon of unleaded gasoline in Wailuku cost $4.53 on Thursday, unchanged from a week earlier, 2 cents less than last month and 35 cents less than last year, according to AAA Hawaii Weekend Gas Watch.

Statewide, the average unleaded price was $4.38 per gallon, unchanged from last week, the same price as last month and 23 cents less than last year, the weekly snapshot of gas prices reported.

In Honolulu, gas was $4.30, a cent less than a week earlier, a cent less than last month and down 17 cents from a year ago. In Hilo, the average price was $4.37, 4 cents more than last week, 4 cents more than last month and 38 cents less than this time a year ago.

Hawaii is the only state with gas prices averaging more than $4 per gallon, followed by Alaska at $3.99 and California at $3.96.

Some areas of Lanai were without electricity for nearly an hour Thursday after a tree branch fell on power lines on Fraser Avenue in Lanai City, according to Maui Electric Co.

After the outage at 5:27 p.m., power was restored at 6:20 p.m. to 1,620 residences and businesses.

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Electric vehicles to be featured at event

Presentations on electric vehicles and a gathering of electronic vehicle drivers will be part of Earth Day activities from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday at the University of Hawaii Maui College.

Hiroshi Kuniyoshi of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization will discuss electric vehicle trends in Japan as keynote speaker.

Anne Ku, Maui Electric Vehicle Alliance project director, will moderate a panel discussion focusing on how to buy, rent or lease an electric vehicle on Maui. The panel will include local car rental agencies, auto dealers and electric vehicle owners.

At the end of the presentation, electronic vehicle drivers on Maui will gather for what is hoped to be the largest assembly of electric vehicles on Maui. Photos will be taken by the UH-MC digital photography class in the parking lot next to the new 'Ike Le'a science building.